Unless otherwise indicated herein, the description in this section is not prior art to the claims in this application and is not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
An image forming apparatus, such as a multifunction peripheral, has a function to read a document with a scanner and to convert the scanned data into image data. Thus, the image forming apparatus can easily convert the read document into image data. Accordingly, even if the document contains confidential information, a user can copy the image data on the document to a paper sheet, store the image data in an external memory, or transmit the image data to another apparatus. In view of this, a leakage of the image data on the document describing the confidential information is prevented as follows. The image forming apparatus or a management server, which is connected to the image forming apparatus over a network, stores the image data on all the read documents as an image-log. It is confirmed whether or not the stored image data contains the confidential information. Additionally, the user is notified that the read image data on the read document is under surveillance. However, to store the image data on the all read documents, the image forming apparatus and the management server require a storage device such as a large-capacity hard disk. In view of this, a measure to save the storage capacity for the image data has been taken. For example, when a page of a blank sheet document is detected, a known image processing apparatus can select any of the following processes to ensure saving the storage capacity for the image data.                (1) A process that reduces the blank sheet document to a minimum image and includes the blank sheet document to log image data,        (2) A process that creates the log image data excluding the blank sheet document,        (3) A process that adds text data such as a “blank sheet” to the blank sheet document reduced to the minimum image, and        (4) A process that creates the image data including the blank sheet document.        